1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for debriding wounds and/or dissecting tissues from the body.
2. Description of the Related Art
When confronted with wounded tissue, physicians and similar practitioners of the medical arts may rely on numerous methods to treat the wound. Despite the repertoire of available techniques, treating severe and/or chronic wounds can be especially difficult. To assist in healing, the practitioner may have to resort to surgical debridement. During debridement, the practitioner removes material from a wound to expose healthy and/or granulation tissue. It is generally believed that keeping such tissue exposed expedites wound healing. However, as wounds begin to heal after debridement, additional material may collect over the healthy and/or granulation tissue. Successful treatment, therefore, often requires repeated debridement.
A diverse amount of material may be removed from the wound during debridement. The removed material may include improper healed, dead, and/or dying tissue. However, the material removed is not limited to tissue. For instance, foreign substances such as, but not limited to, dirt, debris, and/or infectious agents may collect within the wound. In the case of an infectious agent such as, but not limited to, a bacteria, a bacterial laden biofilm may develop over the wound covering healthy and/or granulation tissue. As the infection increases in severity, the wound may become covered with gangrenous tissue. Exposing healthy and/or granulation tissue would then require the removal of such containments. Accordingly, foreign contaminants, biofilms, and/or gangrenous tissue may represent material that has to be debrided from the wound.
In combination or in the alternative, the trauma and/or pathological conditions creating the wound may generate material that needs to be removed to expose healthy and/or granulation tissue. The trauma responsible for creating the wound may fracture blood vessels supplying tissue surviving the trauma. Fracturing the blood vessels, the trauma reduces the blood supply to the surviving tissue creating a region of ischemic tissue. Ischemia may also be the result of various conditions such as, but not limited, diabetes and/or various vascular diseases. As the ischemia persists, the tissue becomes deprived of vital nutrients required for growth and/or survival, and thus may eventually becomes devitalized. Failing to receive required nutrients, the devitalized tissue may eventually slip into a non-viable state. The non-viable tissue may begin a process of necrosis and/or apoptosis in which the cells of the non-viable tissue release various factors the digest and/or degrade the tissue. Destroying itself, the non-viable tissue becomes necrotic tissue. If the degradation and/or digestive process continues beyond the point of cellular death, the necrotic tissue may become slough. However, it is also possible that digestion and/or degradation stops with cellular death as to create an eschar over the wound. Regardless of how far the tissue progresses from ischemia and/or devitalization to slough and/or eschar, the dead and dying tissue generated from a trauma and/or pathological condition responsible for the wound should be removed.
In combination or in the alternative, the wounds may also generate material that needs to be removed to expose healthy and/or granulation tissue. For instance, in response to an inflammation brought about by the presence of foreign substances and/or trauma an exudate may be secreted. As the secretion of exudate persists, the wound may become covered by various proteins and/or other molecules manufactured by the body. Secretion of a fibrinous exudate, for example, may lead to a build up fibrin over the wound. Regardless of the type of exudate secreted and/or built up over the wound, this body generated material should be removed during debridement.
In combination or in the alternative, improperly healed tissue may have to be removed from the wound. For example, instead of migrating into the wound, cells responsible for closing the wound and/or replacing lost tissue may begin to migrate away from the wound. Such misdirected migration may hinder and/or prevent proper closure and/or healing of the wound. Placing cellular migration on the proper path may require removing the tissue created as a result of the misdirected migration. Otherwise healthy tissue hindering, preventing, or otherwise retarding proper closure and/or healing of the wound may appear through other means. Regardless of its origin and/or condition, tissue retarding closure and/or healing should be removed during debridement.
Debriding a wound to expose healthy and/or granulation tissue and/or remove tissue retarding proper closure and/or healing is generally done to expedite wound healing. Exposing debrided wounds to ultrasound has also been shown to expedite wound healing. As to capitalize on this phenomenon, various debridement techniques with ultrasonically vibrating instruments have been developed. Typically these techniques entail removing various materials from the wound with ultrasonically vibrating dissection devices, while simultaneously exposing the wound to ultrasound. Accordingly the wound receives beneficial ultrasound while it is debrided.